On Tue, 2007-12-25 at 13:24 -0500, Vicki Stanfield wrote: > I think it might be that this tvcard is not going to output enough > volume. I wouldn't mind so much, but it is quite jarring when I get an > IM or have some other thing with normal volume kick off. I have a MPEG decoder card that has a very low volume output, and many stand-alone DVD players have low outputs. Conversely most early CD players had very high outputs (almost broadcast standard levels, though not broadcast standard quality). This sort of thing is not helped much by there being NO standard level for line level signals in the domestic world. I've come across equipment that has ranged from about as low as 20 mV up to around 2 V, and that's quite a range. Each manufacturer does whatever they want, and they're not even consistent across their own range of gear. As far as they're concerned, that's what the volume knob is for, and they don't care about the problems associated with connecting two pieces of gear together that expect different levels. In the broadcasting world, there are standards. And they're needed since interconnection and simultaneous use of different gear are prime requirements. A "line level" signal is generally +8 dBm (older) or +4 dBu (more recently), for nominal signal levels. That gives you easily usable signal levels that can be used between almost any pieces of equipment, most can accomodate either fairly easily. Though that got messed up with the digital age, mostly thanks to headroom issues. As Gene said, you may have to abuse the microphone input (though I'd be inclined to think you'd want the extra mic gain to be OFF, not on). Perhaps the gear was designed to be run into a mic socket, or for it to not cause any damage if it were. There's also the possibility that the TV card has its own output level control, and that it's currently set quite low. -- [tim@bigblack ~]$ uname -ipr 2.6.23.1-10.fc7 i686 i386 Using FC 4, 5, 6 & 7, plus CentOS 5. Today, it's FC7. Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists.
